Oakland A's rout Boston Red Sox 13-0

BOSTON -- It was a perfect storm of rain and runs Tuesday night in Fenway Park, with the A's taking a weather-shortened 13-0 win over the Red Sox behind starter Bartolo Colon.

And it came at close to a perfect time for the A's, who had lost four games in succession before finding wind and rain to their liking almost from first pitch to last.

Colon was by far the most comfortable looking man in uniform on either side. He was the only Athletics player not dressed up as if he were skiing the Alps. He just threw fastball strike after fastball strike all night.

"I don't like to wear sleeves," Colon said through interpreter Ariel Prieto in explaining his back-to-the-tropics look on a night where there wasn't a square centimeter of dry space at Fenway. "All of my career it's like this. No sleeves. Except in the dugout. Then I put on a jacket because it was cold."

The A's offense wasn't cold, even if its individual members were. With Colon, now 3-0, allowing just one single in the first four innings, the A's built up an 8-0 lead, then found themselves in the curious position of having to sweat out scoring four more times in the fifth.

More than anything, the A's needed to make sure the game was official by getting through the bottom of the fifth. They slowed that process with a four-run rally in the top of the inning.

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"It was OK," a smiling Colon said of watching the lead built to 12-0. "I just waited and then went back on the mound."

His teammates weren't so sure. Games aren't official until five innings are in the books, and the rain was starting to come down more heavily.

"I'm not going to lie, that (thought) did get in there," catcher John Jaso said. "Let's call the game."

Colon did give up a pair of two-out singles in the bottom half, but ultimately the game was made official when Stephen Drew popped out to shortstop Jed Lowrie.

From that point, the only questions were just how big the margin of victory would be, and when (and if) the umpiring crew would decide to call it off.

Colon had just struck out the side in the seventh when the umpires ordered the tarps on to the field and the players into the clubhouses to see if the weather would break. It didn't.

He never got the chance. He did get a shutout and, at 39 years, 344 days, he's the second-oldest A's pitcher to do so (Don Sutton, 40 years, 95 days in 1985). Colon did it the way he always does it. He threw just one ball in the first inning, two balls in the second and scarcely deviated from there.

"It was all heaters (fastballs)," Jaso said. "It's what he does. There's a lot of motion on the ball, he's throwing it up to 94 (mph) with the four-seamer. And then at the end, he made them miss with some off-speed stuff."

Boston starter Alfredo Aceves also styled the short sleeves, but he had none of Colon's success. The A's scored six times in the third, twice in the fourth and four times in the fifth before adding one run in the sixth as the rain intensified.

"Bartolo was the perfect man to have out there on a night like this," manager Bob Melvin said. "You know he's going to go out there and throw strikes. He's not going to beat himself."

Hey, he not only beat the Red Sox, but without the sleeves, he held Mother Nature to a draw.

New addition Casper Wells arrived in Boston from Seattle in the early hours of Tuesday. He pinch hit in the sixth inning, flying out on the first pitch he saw, and might be in the starting lineup Wednesday with the A's looking for right-handed punch against Boston lefty Jon Lester. "I was ready for that swing," Wells said.

Melvin said shortstop Hiro Nakajima (right hamstring) is going through drills at the A's extended spring training camp in Phoenix and likely to start getting into games. "He is on the cusp of playing," Melvin said. "He worked out (Monday) and said he didn't feel any pain. He's going to get some games soon."

Josh Reddick had two hits and is now a .317 (13 for 41) hitter against his former team with 14 RBIs in 10 games. He drove in two runs with a single and a double Tuesday. Another ex-Red Sox, Brandon Moss, had three hits, drove in two runs and is .636 (14 for 22) against his old team with 11 RBIs in seven career games.